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Judge Claude Frollo
Judge Claude Frollo is the main antagonist of Disney's 1996 animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame and was voiced by the late Tony Jay. He is widely considered to be one of the darkest Disney Villains of all time. Frollo is currently voiced by Corey Burton. Background Personality Frollo is a deeply religious man who tries to convince the people of Paris that his evil deeds are justified because they are God's will, though he is in reality a prejudiced, sinister, vicious, and cold government official who uses his place in power to meet his own extreme ends, going as far as to employ common thugs to enforce his interpretation of God's will while posing as "soldiers." This makes him feared and reviled throughout the city. Frollo is especially set on eliminating the gypsies scattered throughout Paris as their indulgence in "witchcraft and sorcery" is infectious to those around them, according to him, which therefore makes him genocidal. He also is shown to have sadism, as other than his desire to persecute sinners, he also briefly smiles when the previous Captain of the Guard prior to his promoting Phoebus to the rank was heard being tortured for having "failed" him. However despite being highly religious, he is also blasphemous calling religious people such as the Archdeacon "fools." His deep religion also makes him teach Quasimodo a religious alphabet. Despite his dark methods, he is at least familiar with the belief of "forgiveness," presumably because of his faith. This was evident in including Forgiveness as the representing word for the letter "F." While most Disney villains know that what they do is wrong (and either do not care or take pride from this), Frollo actually believes that he is a good person. He repeatedly refuses to find fault within himself and is quite self-righteous, declaring himself much purer than "the common vulgar, weak, licentious crowd" and above the biblical doctrine that all men are equally sinful. He believes that everything he does is in the name of God, even as he attacks the cathedral of Notre Dame for the sake of one gypsy. He does take Quasimodo in but not out of genuine guilt but out of fear for his soul after he unjustly kills his mother and also keeps him for one day when he is "of use to him." Though, at the end of "Hellfire", he does beg God for mercy on Esmeralda for what he plans to do with her and mercy on him for his plans, so he is capable of some form of guilt in his own twisted way. He comes to lust for the beautiful Esmeralda, but even blames his own lust for her on witchcraft and the devil rather than accept that he himself is committing crimes and sins. His lust drives him murderously insane, which ultimately proves to be his downfall when he pushes Quasimodo too far by almost killing Esmeralda. When he believes his lust for Esmeralda to be turning him to sin he is partially right because it is this that makes him murderous and unfair towards the other people, arresting two families and nearly killing one just because they wouldn't give him Esmeralda. He is also very cruel to Quasimodo, by locking him away from the world, forcing the boy to call him "master," and allowing him to be humiliated in public without even bothering to help him, as punishment for disobeying him. He also shows no love or compassion towards Quasimodo (except for bringing him food), and only uses him as a tool for his personal gain. As such, he only allowed Quasimodo to live because he feared for his eternal soul. He also refuses to allow Quasimodo any happiness or freedom by keeping him locked up in Notre Dame. He also seems to be somewhat cynical, believing that stone cannot talk and has trained Quasimodo to believe this as well: Frollo: Dear boy... whomever are you talking to? Quasimodo: My... friends. Frollo: I see. And what are your friends made of, Quasimodo? Quasimodo: Stone. Frollo: Can stone talk? Quasimodo: No, it can't. Frollo: That's right. You're a smart lad. Furthermore, Frollo appears to be a rather stoic man, always appearing cool and collected, and only shows fear when Quasimodo prepares to kill him and when he is about to fall to his death. He rarely exhibits humor, and whenever he does, it is dry and black.